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Defense firms are seeing some effects of sequestration, but the effects may worsen over time. "Sequestration is a reality, but it's unfolding slowly at this time," said United Technologies CEO Louis Chenevert. "We will understand more what sequestration does as we get to the end of the year."

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It would behoove the US to end sequestration, given the rising threat posed by China and Russia's beefing up of its military, writes Barak Seener, founder of Strategic Intelligentia. "Sequestration has handed the strategic initiative to US rivals and enemies as opposed to the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review that advanced a broad military capacity 'for continued engagement in shaping the international environment to reduce the chances that such threats will develop in the first place,' " he writes, quoting the review document.

Bell Helicopter announced that 290 salaried and hourly employees were laid off from its Fort Worth, Texas, facility Monday. The company cited reductions in defense spending for the cuts. "The realities of our business are changing," Bell President and CEO Jim Garrison said in a statement. "Sequestration is having an adverse impact on our industry, making the future for defense spending more uncertain than ever."

The U.S. Air Force has named Bill LaPlante as the principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and management. LaPlante is currently an engineer for The MITRE Corp., and he will assume his new role on May 6.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said it is essential that sequestration be solved. "Sequestration is not a one-year deal. It's 10 years," he said. "So we've really got to get out of it. If we have to operate under sequestration, all the (ambitious goals NASA has set for deep space travel) are years from happening."

Clayton Jones, the CEO of Rockwell Collins, said the company plans to shift some business from defense to the commercial sector. "Sequestration is the single worst piece of public policy I've seen in my 33 years in this business, and it will absolutely affect us," he said.